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Friday 4 March 2011

The Soundtrack of Your Life

It's a Friday. It's not a day for deep thinking. My brain is aching enough from intensive revisions and the knowledge that it's a gorgeous day outside, but I am stuck indoors. So here, I'll throw out a fun and random question instead: 

If you could pick any musician/composer to write the soundtrack of your life, who would it be?

Extra points for giving your reasons too, like explaining the mood you'd see your soundtrack setting and giving us examples of the musician's/composer's work!

My pick? Hans Zimmer.

For those of you who don't know who this is, he composes music for movies. Some of his soundtrack hits include Gladiator, the background music in The Lion King, Angels and Demons and pretty much every other amazing piece of film music ever. Yeah, I love him a little bit. His soundtracks are always so emotional and sweeping - moving from light to heart-pounding to angsty - and he often has an awesome violinist playing along.

Then again, maybe it's my book's soundtrack I'd like him to compose, not my life's. I suspect this may well be a case of author-character confusion. So feel free to choose the soundtrack for your book instead of your life if that's more appealing!

Who's your pick?

10 comments:

  1. Ben Folds. Wistful, witty, heartbreaking, intelligent, exciting - I think there's a song for every emotion and they're all backed up with some damned fine piano playing as well. I'd have to commission him to write songs about me though because a lot of his tend to tell their own story.

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  2. Tough one! I love the most insane mix of music from Asha Bosle to The Smiths to death metal. It all depends on what I'm doing and how I'm feeling.
    Today's track of choice is the soundtrack to Easy Rider. xxx

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  3. hmm... Zimmer? Interesting. I can totally see that for you! : j
    ---
    I'd be tempted to cheat and say I'd want Tarantino to make the ST with already published songs... Because I think that's what he does best (yes, even better than movie making). He'd pick eclectic, funky, and pertinent tracks to match every scene...
    ---
    Ooh, I know! Yoko Kanno! She is amazing, she can compose sad pieces like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpGRXCp_BXA
    upbeat
    Funky tunes for when there isn't much happening but the music just improves and textures the moment:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6N1_GJAyFw&feature=related
    Crazy funky tunes like this one for when I go flying:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQbmyOOJ85w&feature=related
    And she has such a fantastic track record for wonderful songs that I had a hard time choosing...

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  4. That's a good question. And a tough one. I'd probably go with John Williams since his music (in the form of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.) was such a huge part of my childhood and teen years.

    Dan

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  5. James LaBrie! He writes a lot of the music for Dream Theater and his side projects. Not really soundtrack music, but it would be mine.

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  6. Beethoven wrote the soundtrack for my novel in the form of the 9th Symphony. :)

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  7. I'd have to have the same pick as you. He also did the Black Knight. (which isn't really reflective of me, but I love the music)

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  8. If I was going to pick one composer it would need to be one who could do justice to the good times and the bad. Zimmer has thirty years experience behind him but he does collaborate a lot as did do so from the very beginning working with Stanley Myres on several soundtracks. I have the soundtrack to Gladiator but it’s not my favourite work by him even though it seems to have touched the public’s imagination. I far prefer his work on Sherlock Holmes. By sheer coincidence I’m actually listening to one of his soundtracks just now, Bird on a Wire.

    I think I’d opt for his co-composer on Batman Begins, James Newton Howard, who, although he hasn’t been on his best form of late, has, for me, three particularly outstanding soundtracks in the bag: The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs that just make my hair stand up on end.

    To be fair there are plenty of composers out there who I would want to pick for different times in my life and I would have a really hard time picking just one. They all have their strengths. I have a large collection of soundtracks and just because a film is dire doesn’t mean the music is.

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  9. Sound Track of your life? That's a thought deep enough for me. Fine post.

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  10. Zimmer rocks. I'd go with Phillip Glass. Love his compositions.

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